Coming Home, Someday
by aspiringtoeloquence
Summary: Spoilers for a character to be introduced in 3.14, but beyond the name not much is confirmed.   The story of Blaine and Cooper Anderson, and the habit they each have of falling in love with their best friend.


Title: Coming Home, Someday

Spoilers: For a character to be introduced in 3x14, although I basically just took the name (and the visual) and ran with it - aside from the name this is purely my own version.

Summary: The story of Blaine and Cooper Anderson, and the habit they each have of falling in love with their best friend.

Rating: T for some swearing.

A/N: This came from Neaf's Cooper Anderson feelings, and also from a post on my dash that asked why Kurt might know a little bit of ASL. I fully expect everything about it to be jossed, but somehow I will live with it, _and keep this as my headcanon_. Thanks to Neaf for reading it through for me. Title from the song _Lucky. [I should also mention that Claire was in no way part of the spoilers, and so her entire existence should not be confused with canon. The only thing we know is that Blaine has an older brother named Cooper. I ran with it.]_

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><p>The first time Blaine hears her name it's hesitant, during a late night phone call, a mention that he has to go meet someone at the library to study for psychology. Cooper is coming home for Thanksgiving in a few weeks, and it's the light at the end of a tunnel that seemed much longer than it actually was. His brother's only been away at school for two and a half months and Blaine has missed him <em>so<em> much - it's always been the two of them against the world, and being alone is so much harder than he ever thought it would be. He hasn't told Cooper about all of it - telling him about how things at school have really changed since he came out, the depths of the cuts that the words make when they're whispered at him in the hall, that would ruin the little, precious time they get to talk. But Cooper's coming home for a whole week, and Blaine knows that once he's there everything will go back to normal. They'll take Coop's car, go to 7-11 and sit on the hood in the driveway drinking their coke slushies, and he'll tell him everything. And Coop will know what to do, he'll know the right things to say, so Blaine can understand why the kids at school suddenly hate him, like because he's finally being honest he's someone different, someone disgusting.

Then, a week before he's due back, Cooper calls and asks if he can bring a friend with him. Blaine's a little put off, because he doesn't feel like he should have to share his brother when he only gets him for a week, but his mother is all aflutter, because Cooper's bringing a _girl_home, and whenever she mentions it at dinner his father glances at Blaine and looks pointedly away, and Blaine starts to resent her even more, this girl who's stealing his brother and his parents, and is probably not good enough for Cooper anyway, and what, she doesn't have family to go to for the holidays?

And then he meets Claire.

She's is on the short side, though not as short as Blaine, with impossibly long blonde (Disney Princess) hair, round cheeks, and bright green eyes - brown at the edges - that sparkle when she laughs and are framed by thin back frames. Cooper ushers her in with embarassed smiles as their mother chats away about sleeping arrangements, dinner, and how pretty she is, and it takes an awkward moment of Claire looking confused, and Cooper dropping the bags to clumsily gesture with his hands, for Blaine to realize. Claire is deaf.

Well, no. She, as she tells them later, is only partially deaf, and while she lip reads scarily well to fill in whatever she doesn't pick up, she also signs. When Cooper makes what is clearly an aborted attempt at translating something their mother (who looks utterly shocked) had included in her fountain of information Claire laughs and pats his hand. She turns to their mom and smiles, speaking in a lilting voice just a little louder than the rest of them, and taking her hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Anderson. Cooper's told me so much about you."

Her eyes flicker to the doorway, where Blaine was planning to sulk until Cooper noticed him. Her smile widens.

"Blaine! Oh my god, how was your debate tournament? Cooper told me you're amazing at it!"

She pulls him into a hug, and his eyes meet Cooper's over her shoulder (just - he's standing on his toes).

By the end of the day he's learning the sign language alphabet, and hoping that Claire will stick around.

He tells Cooper as much two days later, when they're sitting on the hood of his car, using their straws as spoons to get the last of the slushie out of their cups.

Cooper just smiles, ducks his head shyly, and when he looks back up he asks about school, and Blaine knows it's time to tell him everything.

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><p>The first time Kurt hears Claire's name is also the first time he meets Cooper - they're out to dinner, Cooper is back for the weekend, and Blaine asks how Claire is as though it's a natural extension of their greeting. When his older brother winces Blaine rolls his eyes ("Oh, god, not again, seriously…"), and Cooper gives a half shrug before turning to Kurt with a bright, genuine smile and asking if he's heard the story of the time Blaine bedazzled his track sneakers. The subject is buried in Blaine's groan, and it isn't until later, when they're back in Blaine's car, sitting in Kurt's driveway with a half hour left until curfew, talking and kissing, that he finds out that Cooper and Claire have been on and off for the last four years, from friends, to <em>together<em>, and then not, and then _again_… Claire's great, Blaine tells him, grinning, and she's the one who taught him how to sign the alphabet, and quite a few words, too, although Cooper's pretty fluent and makes fun of him a lot. Kurt shows him that he knows the alphabet too (or most of it, he always gets confused about m and n, and he's forgotten most of the latter half since last summer when he'd checked a book out of the library), and by the time he meets Claire, at the beginning of the summer, when she comes with Cooper to a barbeque he's not certain Blaine's parents are thrilled he's at, he's able to introduce himself and compliment her scarf (scarf was an important word to know, and Blaine had mocked him for looking it up, but who was laughing now?). He likes her immediately - she's quick witted, bright and bubbly in a way that reminds him of a cross between Rachel and Tina (maybe Rachel with Tina's filter), and so obviously disapproving of her boyfriend's (and Kurt's boyfriend's) father that he immediately feels the strength of an ally.

It goes on like that, the two of them banding together at functions (at least the ones that Blaine is able to insist that Kurt attend), sitting around the kitchen table with Cooper, chatting away in a mixture of voices and (when Kurt has learnt more) signs, while Blaine looks on and confuses the words chocolate and church (which, to be fair, are similar) and then thinks they're taking about avacado, when actually Kurt has just commented on the heat (not so similar).

And when Cooper and Claire hit another rough patch, Kurt feels like he's breaking with them - he understands how Blaine felt about it, the exhaustion of watching two people in love try to find their way back to each other. Which they do, they always do. There have been other girls (or, in the case of Claire, guys), but it always comes back to the two of them, because above anything and everything else Claire has always been Cooper's best friend, and Kurt kind of thinks that maybe the Anderson boys have a thing for falling for their best friends. When he tells Blaine this, his boyfriend just smiles, pulls him close, then rolls them so he's pinning Kurt to the matress (again), at which point most thoughts of patterns or family vacate Kurt's head.

She's why he learns ASL - he'll never be as fluent as Cooper, obviously, but Blaine will grow to challenge him eventually, although Kurt's signing will always be more polished. It's more to augment their conversations than facilitate them, and the main advantage is being able to talk about the Andersons (the elder Andersons) in their presence without them knowing.

When Claire finally says yes, it's Kurt and Blaine who get the first call, and then the first picture message - a delicate emerald set on a gold band.

It's Blaine who stands up as Best Man at their wedding, a year later, but it's Kurt who diffuses the serious case of cold feet that threatens it last minute.

It's Cooper who calls Kurt after the big fight - the one that ends in Blaine storming out of their apartment and Kurt questioning what the fuck has _happened_ to them - and tells him what he told Blaine: if they really want to give up, if they really think that they meant what they said, then fine, but as long as they're going to each look so lost and depressed they might as well do it under the same roof, because he's concerned that Blaine might have actually bonded with his couch, and if he eats all the macaroni and cheese then Claire may end up killing him.

It's Claire that lets him in when he goes to apologize, the five days they spent apart seeming like a year, and it's also Claire who pulls Cooper tactfully out the front door, and hushes his mutterings about really not wanting to know what is going to happen on their couch.

It's Kurt who gets the text on a late night in mid-winter, because the test was positive and she doesn't know if this is the right time, and they've both been so busy that they've been having problems, and what if he doesn't even want this anymore -

It's Blaine who gets the call three hours later, from an exultant brother screaming "I'M GOING TO BE A FUCKING FATHER!"

It's Kurt who designs Claire's dress for his and Blaine's wedding, and alters it as many times as he needs to in order to accomadate his growing niece or nephew, and it's Cooper who gives the best man's toast - well, one of them, anyway. He talks about finding the love of your life in your best friend, and being able to say that he saw his baby brother find happiness, after Blaine had shared the fear with him that he might never get the things he'd always wanted. He tells the story of the first time Blaine mentioned Kurt in conversation, and the phone call he got after their first date (which causes the room to laugh, Blaine to turn bright red, and Kurt to pull his husband's head from his hands so that he can kiss him). He mentions the phone call when they got engaged, the joy that he and Claire had felt at knowing that they'd finally "gotten their shit together" and decided to plan a party to celebrate the most ridiculously perfect pairing of two souls that he has ever seen.

As they toast, and Cooper takes a seat next to his beaming wife, Blaine's eye catches Kurt's, and they both look over to his - _their_ - brother.

When Kurt signs a quick _thank you_, Claire smiles, and then their attention is directed to the next speaker, who has begun to regale the room with the story of the time Kurt and Blaine drank too much tequila -

Kurt buries his head in his husband's shoulder, groaning at the memory, and Blaine snickers into his hair as he kisses his head briefly.

By the time they sneak out of the reception to go to their room Claire is at a table with Mercedes and Tina, and Cooper is on the dance floor with Carole (who has been enjoying the champagne, and kicked off her shoes _hours_ ago).

Blaine looks over his shoulder one last time, thinks '_yes, this is what family is_', and then lets his husband pull him to the elevator, hands slipping under his jacket like that's where they're meant to be.


End file.
